Conventionally, computer systems offering various job services perform a process and return a process result in response to a process request received from an external apparatus and the like, and also output and store therein an execution log. Examples of information to be output as an execution log include information indicating a result of a performed process and information indicating a process being performed.
Due to complexity of job services and improvement in a system's processing capability, each job service has been developed independently. Thus, a computer system performing such job services outputs an execution log in a unique format. Further, complexity of job services causes increase in volume and complexity of execution logs to be output.
For these reasons, execution logs to be output for each job service cannot be managed centrally. Further, when a user of a system refers to or analyzes execution logs of a plurality of job services, the user cannot obtain intended data using a reference process or an analysis process automatically performed in the system. This requires manual operations, causing a burden on the user.
For concrete example, to generate an audit log with execution logs, necessary information needs to be retrieved from each log. In this case, a determination standard needs to be set individually for each execution log due to differences in description format and other factors of job services. Thus, even when the reference process or the analysis process is performed automatically, intended data cannot be obtained. Accordingly, manual operations are required, causing a burden on a user. To address this, technologies are disclosed that reduce such burden on a user when the user refers to or analyzes execution logs of a plurality of job services.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H11-136428 discloses a technology of sorting logs to be output depending on an event process performed in each job service. Specifically, in an image processing apparatus such as a multifunction printer, logs are sorted to “notification event”, “error event”, and “warning event” depending on the degree of importance of each event to be output. Then, a user sets process content to be output as an execution log for each event. For example, “job state transition”, “job completion”, and the like are set for “notification event”; “toner off”, “paper off”, and the like are set for “error event”; and “out of disk space”, “system shutdown”, and the like are set for “warning event”.
The image processing apparatus then outputs, for example, “job completion” as an execution log for “notification event” according to “event process” and “process content” sorted in this manner. Similarly, “paper off” and “toner off” are output for “error event”, and “out of disk space” and “system shutdown” are output as execution logs for “warning event”.
In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H11-136428 described above as a conventional technology, execution logs can be centrally managed according to the set events. However, the process content to be sorted to the events differ among job services (job processes), and therefore intended data cannot be obtained even when the reference process or the analysis process is performed automatically. This requires manual operations to obtain necessary (intended) data, causing a burden on a user.